The RCMP and border officials have made a significant drug bust at the Port of Halifax.
Officers with the Canada Border Services Agency discovered more than 46 kilograms hidden in a commercial cargo shipment on May 2.
The agency says the container had come from Panama and was bound for Montreal.
The cargo had been declared as suitcases and was identified as high-risk by the agency’s National Targeting Centre.
During an of inspection207 suitcases using X-ray technology, officials found 10 containing packages of cocaine. The drugs were concealed within the back wall of each suitcase.
Officers seized the drugs and turned them over to the RCMP. Investigators in Nova Scotia then began working with the RCMP in Montreal.
The investigation led to the arrest of four men from South America in Montreal on May 15.
The investigation is ongoing and charges are pending.
“The importation of drugs is a focus for the RCMP in Nova Scotia,” said RCMP Sgt. Keith MacKinnon in a statement released Wednesday.
“By sharing intelligence and coordinating enforcement activities with our partners at the CBSA, we are targeting criminal groups and networks that are using increasingly sophisticated methods to attempt to smuggle drugs into our country and onto our streets."
The agency says there were 130 narcotics seizures in the Atlantic region, including five cocaine seizures, in 2013.
